Tools are awesome! I love tools for all kinds of crafts. Heat tools, scissors, trimmers, punches, paper piercing tools, mats, foam mats, stamp positioners, scissor sharpeners, tearing edges—I could go on and on and on.
The thing is, most of these tools sit there not being used because one day, we just may need them.
The good thing about tools is that, over time, they are often improved. The bad news is that, over time, they are often improved.
But I have learnt that crafters are terrible at getting rid of version 1.0!
Which leads to “stuff”. Too much “stuff” leads to a lack of room for things we would use. Which leads to frustration, and can lead to guilt and then can lead to overwhelm. End result: possibly not even wanting to make something because it’s all just too much.
Sound familiar ? Thought so.
Important Side Note
I got the best email after I wrote the article on reducing your patterned paper. I loved it so much. She said, “Don’t you sell these supplies? You’re doing a terrible job selling supplies, or you are telling people to throw out stuff so they have to buy new supplies from you.”
My mission with my business has always been to inspire crafters to make more projects. To help them spend time in their craft, because crafting is such a beautiful stress reliever, and we need more good in our world. That’s it – That’s my mission.
When stampers avoid their crafting space because they have too much stuff, no one wins in that scenario. The crafter doesn’t win because she or he isn’t crafting. The recipients that love receiving your cards don’t win because they aren’t getting your beautiful handmade creations. And yep, I don’t win because you aren’t ordering supplies from me because you’re already overwhelmed.
So if I am taking a time off from “selling” to share these tips with you, it’s because I will joyfully invest this time into my creative friends to help them have a more productive craft space! It aligns with my mission, my vision, and hopefully your crafting goals as well.
Back to Tools
Be brave and pull out every tool you have. As you pull them out, sort them into three piles:
- What the heck is this thing and why did I buy it? I haven’t used this in forever.
- I’ve got multiples or similar items.
- I will die if this tool doesn’t stay on my craft table.
Those are your three piles.
The last one is the pile that should be the smallest. We will talk about how to get that into your smallest pile.
The first pile—put those items in a box. I know the “but” in this one.
“But what if I need it one day?” If you find you are absolutely lost without it, you can repurchase it. The vast majority of the time, you won’t need to repurchase it.
If it’s THE tool you will want later on, it’s usually because version 2.0 came out, and you will want 2.0, but you will have guilt or hesitancy because you’ve got 1.0 collecting dust.
The middle pile may take a bit of time to sort through. So take a look at the things that have multiple uses. For example, I recently recommended an Envelope Punch Board in the article on using up patterned paper. The backside of that punch board has the best corner rounder punch ever! So if you have the board, you also have a corner rounder.
Your papercraft space mainly needs a total of three pairs of scissors: fine-tip scissors, ribbon scissors, and junk scissors. These are the ones where you can cut prongs off brads, open packages, etc.
The exception to this is if you have pinking shears that you use. However, if you have a die set that has a pinking edge (also known as a zig-zag look), you don’t need both. The die takes up way less room. If the die is in a set with all flowers, remember what we talked about in this post—it’s okay to only keep one die from a “set”.
Remember that just because things are sold as a set doesn’t obligate you to keep it as a set.
I thought of another example of this: salt and pepper. You normally buy salt and pepper shakers in a set. We usually wouldn’t dream of only keeping one. I found the cutest set about a year ago, but only needed one. I bought the set, but instead of salt and pepper, I used it for cinnamon.
The point of this is that sometimes it makes more sense to not keep it all if it wasn’t the original plan or if you find out that you don’t use the rest of the set.
Just like stamps, punches and dies go out of style. There are punches that you have used and used, they have had a good life with you, but you don’t use them as much anymore because you have one you like more.
Label punches come to mind. These too come in and out of style, or they coordinated with a stamp set that has gone out of style, or you’re simply tired of it.
There’s a stamper I know who had over 300 punches. One of her punch shelves actually broke under the weight of all her punches. That’s almost a punch a day! There were three new punches she was wanting, but she had no more room on her shelf. When we talked about getting rid of some, she just kept saying she couldn’t do it. She had spent a lot of money on them and “might need them one day.”
We sat down and looked at her cards she had made, and I asked her to show me her favourites. She had a large stash of cards. We took her favourite 100 cards where she had used a punch, and went over to her punch shelves and compared. When we saw a card that used a punch, we pulled the punch and set the card with it.
You can probably guess how this goes, but I will continue just in case. We pulled out less than 20 punches and had all 100 cards lined up with those punches, with the exception of circle punches—because those are an absolute staple in my mind.
That meant she had over 250 punches she wasn’t using.
Another creative friend of mine didn’t have her physical cards, as she had mailed them. But she had taken pictures of her cards, so we used those on her phone. Same activity, with fewer punches, similar results.
If they aren’t being used, they are dead weight. And dead weight leads to less crafting—it truly does.
What Items I Hear About Most with Duplicates
We already dove into punches, so here are some others…
Heat Tools
This one cracks me up. Heat tools have come a long way over the last few decades. My first one died a slow, painful death-ish. When I say slow, it would barely heat up. It would take me forever to heat emboss a simple image. So I gave in and finally bought another one.
Yet, I guess I thought the first one was the little engine that could, lol. I hung onto it just in case my new one died, then I would still have the original—even though it would barely heat.
I thought I was unique in that. But I learnt that I was like so many other paper crafters.
I’m amazed at how many stampers have more than one but only have two hands. I haven’t met a single three-handed paper crafter.
“But what if I have a friend that comes over and may want to use it?”
If it’s imperative that both people use the heat tool at the exact same time, then keep both. But I’ve yet to come across that happening. I’ve run events with 20–30 people with one heat gun, and we all did fine.
Ditch the 1.0 version and enjoy using the 2.0 version.
Trimmers/Cutters
Raise your hand if you have a trimmer in a drawer that you can no longer get blades for but you are hopeful that one day the blades will magically become available again.
Spoiler alert: the blades aren’t coming back.
Have a great quality trimmer and a great guillotine cutter for cutting multiple sheets. I have a mini cutter only because it fits on video better than my bigger cutters do. But if I wasn’t doing videos, it would go. Some people travel, so this makes sense if you travel with a little cutter.
Get rid of the others and move on 🙂
Adhesives
My advice on this is: use it up! What I often see is that stampers have little bits in a million dispensers. I get that tape runners also have 1.0 and 2.0. It’s so tempting to hold onto those old rolls even after you open up a new package of a different brand.
If they aren’t your favourites, or don’t work well, throw them out. Don’t waste hours trying to get them to work.
There is a type of tape that I was given a few years back from a friend. She gave it to me because she thought I could make it work better than she could.
Uhhhh… that’s not how that works. I can’t make adhesive work better. It either works or it doesn’t.
And what works for some, doesn’t work for all. Where you live plays a big part in how tape works. Humidity doesn’t just affect hair 🙂
Then with what’s left, set a goal to use up the ones that have the least amount left. Don’t use anything else until that first one is used up. It should go quickly since you are starting with what has the least amount. Pare it down to where you have your favourite liquid adhesive, favourite foam adhesive, favourite tape runner, and favourite heavy-duty tape. Then it’s okay to have backups of those, but stick to those brands.
Hole Makers
In this category, I’m including hole setters for eyelets, handheld punches (like an stationary supply hole punch), Crop-a-Diles, paper piercers—if it makes a hole, it’s in this category.
Check for your duplicates. I love the Crop-a-Dile because you can cut through one piece of cardstock or five. So, the handheld punches that punch the same sizes need to go.
Eyelets have been out of style for years, which honestly, I am sad about. But the truth is, it doesn’t look like they are making a comeback anytime soon. So, the little toolkits that had the hammer/eyelet setter/hole punch—let them go. And put the eyelets in with them.
If you have a punch and a handheld punch that are the same, I think you know what I’m going to say… keep the one that either does the best job, or if they are equal in that area, keep the one that takes up the least amount of space.
Machines
I love machines! I mean, LOVE them! I have a lot of machines, and I’m not afraid to admit that. I will cover the list I have, why I have them, and what I don’t have.
In order for me to maintain complete transparency, I will have to split this into what I have for business and what I have for crafting.
From a Crafter’s Perspective
I have a Big Shot, an electric Big Shot, the full-size Stampin’ Up! Die Cutting Machine, and two Mini Stampin’ Up! Die Cutting Machines.
As I’ve shared before, I am blessed to have a craft space and a shared office. One room is for papercrafting supplies and the other room is where I do my filming and keep my sewing machine.
I have dexterity issues with my hands due to fibromyalgia. While I don’t hide this, it’s not something I feel compelled to share regularly. I have good days and I have bad days.
I much prefer a manual machine over electric. I already have too many cords in my craft room as it is—so the fewer cords, the happier I am. But there are days that I can’t turn the handle on the Big Shot machine. So, I purchased an electric machine.
When Stampin’ Up! came out with their new die cutting machine, I waited over a year before buying it. But a friend who had one said it rolls so much smoother than the Big Shot and encouraged me to try it, knowing about my hand issues. If I didn’t like it, she said she would buy it off me because she likes to have a backup machine (she obviously hadn’t read my de-stashing series because I am just now writing it, lol!).
I bought it, and I do like it. Not sure it’s better than the Big Shot, but it’s easier on my hands and it folds up. So, the Big Shot went upstairs with some of my Bigz Dies that I use with fabric. There are still days that I need to use my electric Big Shot, so I do have both full-size machines in my stamp room.
I was able to get the mini machine for half price. I have it, I like it, and I use it—it folds up and doesn’t take up much room. One lives upstairs for when I’m filming.
I’ve many times considered getting the Scan ‘N Cut for cutting out images that don’t have dies. I thought I’d never have to buy dies again… HA! That’s delusional thinking!
See, these companies are brilliant. Rarely do you have a set of dies that only cuts out the stamped images. They also have great border dies, cute tags, or some piece that has nothing to do with the stamped images, but you’ll use it a lot. There was a set recently that comes to mind—I only wanted the little “bonus” cover plate. It had nothing to do with the stamp set images, but it was in that set.
What I Don’t Have Anymore
- The Cuttlebug (I didn’t need it when I already had tools that did the same job better).
- The Texture Boutique—that was such a disappointing tool.
And I think that’s it from a crafter’s perspective.
If your machines take up a lot of room, consider the “2.0 models” that fold up and take up less space. If one causes you pain, maybe a “2.0 model” will solve that. And get rid of any machine that only die cuts or embosses—keep one that does both.
Blocks/Platforms
This section is our last—and we’ll get through it quickly. Kudos to all of you that have read this far!
We need acrylic blocks for our stamps to work now. With wood mount stamps being a rarity, these blocks are necessary.
If you’ve bought from several companies, you know you have some you never use. I can’t stand those thin ones—I feel like I have this giant hand with this teeny and my hand will swallow the block. I get ink on my fingers just trying to get them inked up.
I also can’t stand oval or circular blocks. I really struggle with curved blocks because I can’t stamp straight with them—they’re my kryptonite.
I need blocks that have grooves, especially for grip strength. My fingers have to go into the grooves or else I often drop the blocks.
Go through your blocks. You know what you like—get rid of what doesn’t work for you. (Full disclosure: t I have more blocks than most people because I do large crafting events, where I supply everything!)
Stamping Platforms (Stamp Positioning Tools)
When it comes to stamping platforms, man, do you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your right platform. And I have a few of them.
When my friend was looking for their new home, while living in a hotel, their real estate agent gave them amazing advice. In one week they would look at about 30 houses. He said they could only choose between two: the one that was their favourite, and the house they were currently standing in. They could only talk about the house five houses ago if it was their favourite. So that was it—two houses: the favourite and the one they were standing in.
I use that same theory for so many things in life, because too many choices leads to indecision. (Think about the Café 63 or 107 Coffee Terminal’s menus for a second… way too many choices!)
So, when it comes to platforms, if you are trying to find the right one, only keep your favourite. If you want to try another one, fine—but then decide which one is your favourite and get rid of the other. These may not take up a lot of room, but when you have several plus your blocks, the sum is greater than the parts.
Whew!
It’s a good thing I have my computer plugged in. It’s taken me over four hours to write and edit this—four hours of straight typing, going off my very messy notes.
So if you want me to keep going, please leave me a comment that includes any ‘aha’ moments for you, any key takeaways, or what you went and boxed up.
We will talk about what to do with your boxes—I promise. But for now, we are focusing on guilt-free removal of overwhelm from your craft area. And cleaning burns calories, right? So this is a two-for-one win!
Next up, we’ll dive into accessories. Are you sitting there thinking, oh no, I kinda hoped she would skip those? If so, you probably need to read it!
